Eak Ee Eak Eak – Ong SIRAPHISUT

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Eak–Ee–Eak–Eak was an exhibition questioning the truth created by language and symbols across cultures, using the construct “chicken” as a platform to explore this theme. The work looked at the numerous, colorful uses and meanings of the construct “chicken” from a physical and literal level to an abstract and subjective level. For example:

• kai as a nick-name in Thai, poulet as a name for police in French and Italian, a spunky chick in Australia, etc.

• different interpretations, in different cultures of the word “chicken”.

• sounds of the chicken, in the market place, at the slaughter house, in the stories of traditional childhood songs, contemporary pop and so on

I surveyed these themes via an entertaining mix of mediums: painting, sculpture, sound, video and experimental art activities.

Paintings and Collage

There were 13 oil paintings and over 500 collages made from local newspaper and magazines.

Saddam Hussein, was a chick in the US hand

A Thai celebrity whose literarily means chicken.

Sculptures

Exhibition visitors were welcome to rearrange and take some of 365 pieces of plastered chicken sculptures. Each sculpture was unique and was made by squeezing a soft latex mold in my hand while pouring the wet plaster paste into the mold. Some of the sculptures were painted with different patterns of international flags, and most were white coated with lacquer.

There also was a set of sculptures that reacted to sound. When making noise, the chicken sculpture would dance.

Video and sound

A set of 10 minutes video installation was installed on the corner of the exhibition room. A set of sound installation that captured sounds of real chicken, human interpretation sounds of roosters, and melodies of chicken songs was installed in 4 corners of the room. They echo each other like a chaos sounds of rooster in the morning.

Still caption from the video installation.

Activities

T-shirts were screened and were available for sale together with the image of exhibition posters. Postcards were mailed out to local and national news agencies.

Year: 2004
Dimension: variable
Materials: oil paintings, collages, drawings, paper, plaster, speakers, televisions, VHS video player, sound recorder, sound sensitive sensors, food, cocktails, t-shirts, posters, postcards
Venue: Umong Silphadhama Gallery, Chiang Mai, Thailand